Israeli MK to visit Australia
The Zionist Federation of Australia will host influential Knesset member of KnessetDr Ruth Calderon when she visits Australia next month.
Ginette Searle, Dr Ruth Calderon, Philip Chester
Calderon will be the keynote speaker at the ZFA 2013 Plenary to be held in Sydney on August 11 and will also present at several community events together with the Zionist Councils of Victoria and New South Wales.
ZFA President Philip Chester expressed the community’s response to Calderon’s visit. “We are thrilled that Dr Ruth Calderon will be visiting Australia. Dr Calderon is a superstar of contemporary Jewish thought – an intellectual, Torah scholar and politician committed to social justice.”
Dr Calderon is a member of the Israeli Parliament with the Yesh Atid party, and was elected to the Knesset in 2013. Her maiden speech in the Knesset became a YouTube sensation and she will certainly bring a fascinating combination of Jewish learning, Israeli politics, social issues and engagement to our community.
Calderon established the Alma School, an educational institution in Tel Aviv which combines traditional Jewish studies with academic culture studies. Alma provides a new approach to cultural studies and investigates the Jewish-Israeli identity.
Calderon also initiated the establishment of Beit Midrash Elul, which earned her the Avi-Chai award. Elul explains their objectives: “Elul uses traditional and modern Jewish texts to create pluralistic dialogues in a beit midrash style that are relevant, current and help define who we – as individuals and as a nation – are today.”
Calderon edited and presented the television program “The Room” on Channel 2, which discussed Hebrew cultural texts in 2012. She was nominated Chair of Culture and Education at the National Library of Israel.
She has recently been elected as Co-Chair of the Knesset Friends of Australia Committee.
Calderon will speak at community events in Melbourne and Sydney:
- Sydney: Monday August 12.
- Melbourne: Tuesday August 13 at 8pm. Caulfield Hebrew Congregation, 572 Inkerman Road, Caulfield. For details please contact [email protected].
